The present invention relates in general to providing services to individuals in a mobile environment. More particularly, it relates to an efficient process for dynamically providing geographically relevant information to individuals in a mobile environment, such as, for example, a motor vehicle.
Efficient, fast and cost effective access to information is extremely important to a wide variety of consumers in today""s marketplace. For example, the use of networked personal computers to access and/or exchange information has changed the way many industries do business. Consumer""s can use a variety of networked communication tools, such as the Internet and company-based xe2x80x9cIntranets,xe2x80x9d to obtain information on every subject from automobiles to zebras. The proliferation of wireless communications technology, such as cellular telephony and personal communications systems (PCS), has extended information access beyond the home and office to remote and/or mobile locations.
One example is a vehicular emergency message system of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,061. The ""061 patent describes a system in which a global positioning system (GPS) receiver is utilized in conjunction with a cellular telephone unit to provide positioning information to emergency service providers over a cellular link. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,012, so called xe2x80x9cfloating car dataxe2x80x9d (which includes, inter alia, position information from, for example, a GPS receiver) is gathered at a moving vehicle and transmitted over a mobile wireless system to a control center. The control center uses the transmitted information to judge traffic patterns and congestion, and provides the traffic information to the moving vehicles over the same mobile wireless system. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,767,795, a GPS-based information system is used to act as an electronic tour guide to overcome the monotony of automobile trips. The system includes a GPS receiver, a computer, and a database of pre-recorded information, all of which may be contained in one housing and permanently installed in the vehicle. The database contains information pertaining to various geographical regions. The computer receives a signal from the GPS receiver indicating the position of the vehicle. The computer then retrieves information from the database, the retrieved information corresponding to the position determined by the GPS receiver. The information is presented to the traveler, either on a video display or through an audio playback unit. The system can therefore provide information on the history, geography, and/or culture, relating to the region through which the vehicle is traveling.
While useful, the above-described systems suffer from several shortcomings. For example, the ""795 patent provides regionally relevant information to a motor vehicle, but has no network links for carrying out any meaningful real time information exchange to and from locations outside the vehicle. The ""061 and ""012 patents provide network links, however they use wireless telephony paths to communicate information to and from the vehicle, thereby incurring air-time charges and requiring the time consuming and relatively inefficient step of making a telephone call to establish the communications link.
Other systems provide information to users on a broadcast basisxe2x80x94for example, the direct-to-home satellite systems used by companies such as DIRECTV and Dish Network, or the digital radio broadcast system used by the Sirius Satellite Radio Company. These systems don""t generally have the problems associated with relying on a cellular link for data transmission (no airtime charges, and xe2x80x9calways onxe2x80x9d without needing a phone call to establish the link) but they are not dynamic, i.e., you get what they send and what you are authorized to receive. For example, a user will typically be required to have authorization codes that match the authorization codes in the incoming data in order for the data to be received and processed. If there is a match, the received data packet is passed for processing. If there is no match between the authorized code in the data and the authorization codes at the receiver station, the data falls on the floor.
Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient, simple and cost effective method of dynamically providing geographically relevant information to a mobile environment, such as, for example, a motor vehicle.
The present invention provides an efficient and dynamic method of delivering services to a mobile environment. More particularly, it provides a dynamic method of delivering regionally relevant information to a plurality of geographically disperse and mobile environments, such as, for example, motor vehicles. Accordingly, the invention allows passengers in an automobile to immediately access regionally relevant information, such as weather, traffic, points of interest, restaurants, advertisements for local establishments, etc., without incurring expensive air-time from connecting through cellular telephony infrastructure. The invention utilizes a filtering process referred to herein as dynamic geo filter/fencing (DGFF). This involves a receiver element in a mobile environment, such as a motor vehicle, taking a geocode reading (e.g., latitude and longitude readings obtained from a GPS satellite via a GPS receiver) for identifying the location of the vehicle, then logically drawing a fence around that location reading, for example two miles square. At a separate location (e.g., a satellite uplink facility) regionally relevant data is tagged with the geocode of the region to which the data is relevant, then broadcast (e.g., over a satellite link) to a wide footprint. The aforementioned receiver element receives the geocoded regionally relevant information and filters it using the aforementioned logical fence according to the aforementioned DGFF process. In other words, received information bearing a geocode within the logical fence is kept and processed, while information bearing a geocode falling outside of the logical fence is not kept and processed. The inventive methodology is dynamic in that the fence automatically moves as the mobile environment moves, thereby automatically changing the nature and content of the information that is allowed to pass through the DGFF filter.
The present invention may be implemented using in a wireless distribution system that securely, reliably and inexpensively distributes digital, packetized and regionally relevant information to individuals at geographically disperse and mobile locations. The wireless distribution system is preferably implemented using the up-link and air-link facilities of a known digital satellite broadcast system, such as the satellite-based, digital radio broadcast system utilized by the Sirius Satellite Radio system. Details of such a system are provided several U.S. Patents, including specifically U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,579 entitled Digital Radio Satellite and Terrestrial Ubiquitous Broadcasting System Using Spread Spectrum Modulation. Other patents describing SDARS are U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,673, U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,616, U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,863, U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,485, U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,471, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,138, U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,039, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,839.
The present invention is embodied in a method of providing regionally relevant information to a mobile environment. The steps include receiving at a receiver station of the mobile environment transmitted geographically coded regionally relevant information; and filtering said transmitted geographically coded regionally relevant information based on a current position of said receiver station and a predetermined area around said current position of said receiver station. The mobile environment may be any of a variety of mobile environments, for example, a motor vehicle or a person.
The above-described filtering can comprise determining whether a geographically coded portion of said geographically coded regionally relevant information represents an area falling outside said predetermined area around said current position of said receiver station. The predetermined area is periodically updated when said current position changes.
The filtered regionally relevant information may be placed in a format suitable for presentation to a user. The regionally relevant information can include traffic information, weather information, points of interest, historical information, advertisements, and other types of information
The present invention may also be embodied in a system for providing regionally relevant information to a mobile environment. The system includes a central broadcast facility that assembles regionally relevant information and associates with said regionally relevant information geographic coding information identifying a geographic region to which said regionally relevant information is relevant. The central broadcast facility broadcasts said geographically coded regionally relevant information to a coverage area that includes receiver stations each part of a mobile environment and capable of receiving and processing said transmitted geographically coded regionally relevant information. The processing operation includes filtering said transmitted geographically coded regionally relevant information based on a current position of said receiver station and a predetermined area around said current position of said receiver station. The filtering can further include determining whether a geographically coded portion of said geographically coded regionally relevant information represents an area falling outside said predetermined area around said current position of said receiver station. The predetermined area is periodically updated when said current position changes.